An electrical appliance such as a dish-washer is usually provided with a door lock. When the door is to be closed, a pushing force is applied to the door, and a door hook is inserted into the door lock and engages with the door lock to lock the door; when the door is to be opened, a pulling force is applied to the door, and the door hook retracts from the door lock and disengages from the door lock.
It is desirable to unlock such door lock from the inside of the washing machine to meet some requirement in use. It is also desirable that such door lock has a certain pulling force that can assist in closing the door and that opening and closing the door needs only a simply pulling/pushing operation without an additional operation such as turning, pinching or buckling so that the door lock is convenient in use and has well hand feeling in manipulation. Furthermore, to reduce cost, it is desirable that the door hook which is used with such kind of door lock has the simplest structure (a one-piece part which is directly fixed to the door) rather than has a removable structure constructed from a plurality of parts.
Usually, such door lock includes a pivotal lock hook and a slider for locking the pivotal lock hook. The lock hook pivots as the door hook inserts in and retracts from the lock hook, and the slider generally reciprocatingly slides in a direction perpendicular to a pivotal plane. When the slider is in a slider locked position, it is able to prevent the lock hook from rotating. When applying pulling force to the door, the lock hook pivots as the door hook retracts from the lock hook thereby applies a force to the slider. The force enables the slider to move away from the slider locking position so that the lock hook can pivot and the door is opened. Such door lock generally further comprises a locking member such as a pawl which locks the slider according to a signal indicative of locking the door lock and which is configured to keep the slider in the slider locked position to prevent the door from being opened during operation of the electrical appliance. According to safety requirements, the door lock must guarantee that during operation of the electrical appliance such as the dish-washer, the door will not be opened as being applied with an external force.
The shortcoming exits in the door lock which has the above functions is it usually has big volume or size, whereas compact figure is usually an important target for the product.